Federal appeals court moves to reconsider ruling in Trump’s favor on Portland troop deployment
A decision in Donald Trump’s favor by a three-judge panel issued on Monday, which lifted a block on his planned deployment of Oregon national guard troops to Portland, could be reconsidered by a new, larger panel of federal appeals court judges.
Hours after the three-judge panel decided, 2-1, that Trump has the legal authority to deploy federalized troops to Portland, a judge on the ninth circuit court of appeals formally requested “a vote on whether this case should be reheard” by a larger panel of judges.
That triggered a formal order for lawyers for the state of Oregon and the city of Portland to submit written briefs arguing for a rehearing, and lawyers for the Trump administration to argue against it, by midnight on Wednesday.
After those briefs are submitted, all 29 active judges on the appeals court, the nation’s largest, will vote on whether or not to rehear the case.
If the vote for a new hearing wins, the legal journalist Chris Geidner explains, the case will be heard again by 11 judges, including the court’s chief judge, Mary Murguia, an Obama nominee, and 10 randomly assigned judges.
The initial three-judge panel was comprised of two judges nominated by Trump during his first term, who voted to allow the troop deployment, and one nominated by Bill Clinton, who voted against it.
Of the 29 judges who can vote on the rehearing (all who are not on semi-retired, “senior” status), 16 were nominated by Democratic presidents (8 by Biden, 5 by Obama and 3 by Clinton) and 13 by Republican presidents (10 by Trump and 3 by George W Bush).
According to Steve Vladeck, a Georgetown law professor, all three of the judges from the initial panel would be eligible for the second panel of 10 judges. Graber is on senior status, but she is eligible because she was on the initial panel.
Key events
Canadian province runs anti-tariff ad narrated by Ronald Reagan during Toronto-Seattle baseball game
As Carl Bergstrom, a biology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, just pointed out on Bluesky, an anti-tariff ad, targeted to American workers, just ran during game 7 of the Major League Baseball series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seatttle Mariners.
The twist is that the ad, paid for by the Canadian province of Ontario, features narration from a 1987 speech by Ronald Reagan.
Federal appeals court moves to reconsider ruling in Trump’s favor on Portland troop deployment
A decision in Donald Trump’s favor by a three-judge panel issued on Monday, which lifted a block on his planned deployment of Oregon national guard troops to Portland, could be reconsidered by a new, larger panel of federal appeals court judges.
Hours after the three-judge panel decided, 2-1, that Trump has the legal authority to deploy federalized troops to Portland, a judge on the ninth circuit court of appeals formally requested “a vote on whether this case should be reheard” by a larger panel of judges.
That triggered a formal order for lawyers for the state of Oregon and the city of Portland to submit written briefs arguing for a rehearing, and lawyers for the Trump administration to argue against it, by midnight on Wednesday.
After those briefs are submitted, all 29 active judges on the appeals court, the nation’s largest, will vote on whether or not to rehear the case.
If the vote for a new hearing wins, the legal journalist Chris Geidner explains, the case will be heard again by 11 judges, including the court’s chief judge, Mary Murguia, an Obama nominee, and 10 randomly assigned judges.
The initial three-judge panel was comprised of two judges nominated by Trump during his first term, who voted to allow the troop deployment, and one nominated by Bill Clinton, who voted against it.
Of the 29 judges who can vote on the rehearing (all who are not on semi-retired, “senior” status), 16 were nominated by Democratic presidents (8 by Biden, 5 by Obama and 3 by Clinton) and 13 by Republican presidents (10 by Trump and 3 by George W Bush).
According to Steve Vladeck, a Georgetown law professor, all three of the judges from the initial panel would be eligible for the second panel of 10 judges. Graber is on senior status, but she is eligible because she was on the initial panel.
Republican senators say they won’t support Trump nominee after racist texts are reported
Two Republican senators said on Monday that they would not vote to confirm Paul Ingrassia, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead a government ethics office, after his racist text messages were reported by Politico.
According to texts reviewed by Politico, Ingrassia, a lawyer and former pro-Trump blogger, wrote last year that Martin Luther King Jr “was the 1960s George Floyd and his ‘holiday’ should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs”.
He also used a slur for Black people in a text arguing that all Black holidays should be “eviscerated” and admitted “I do have a Nazi streak in me.”
The Office of Special Counsel, the agency Trump picked Ingrassia to lead, investigates discrimination complaints and other claims of wrongdoing by federal employees, and enforces the Hatch Act, which bars government employees from engaging in certain partisan political activities, and has been widely flouted by the Trump administration.
Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, told HuffPost that he does not support Ingrassia and hopes the White House pulls his nomination before a confirmation hearing scheduled for Thursday before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee.
Rick Scott, a Florida Republican on the committee, told Semafor he does not “plan on voting for” Ingrassia.
Ingrassia, who was spotted last year at a rally by Nick Fuentes, the antisemitic, white nationalist livestreamer, has also recently been investigated for sexual harassment, following a complaint from a female colleague at the Department of Homeland Security, where he is White House liaison.
On Trump’s first day back in office in January, Ingrassia went to the Washington DC jail as a White House official, to free two Capitol rioters he described as “January 6th political prisoners” who had been pardoned by Trump that day.
BREAKING: First January 6th political prisoners to be released after President Trump’s pardon: brothers Matthew and Andrew Valentin. They were released minutes ago from the DC Jail.
A HISTORIC DAY IN AMERICA! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/7INfhxLqGr
— Paul Ingrassia (@PaulIngrassia) January 21, 2025
Portland’s mayor promises to defend ‘the right to peacefully protest’
Portland’s mayor, Keith Wilson, responded to a federal appeals court ruling on Monday that could allow Donald Trump to deploy federalized national guard troops to the city by pledging to fight on in court and to defend the right of the city’s resident to protest.
The mayor said in a statement posted on social media:
Portland stands for democracy, dignity, and the right to peacefully protest. Our focus is simple and unchanging: we demand transparency, accountability, and community-led solutions, not troops on our streets.
Our National Guard members are our neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones, and they deserve better than this unnecessary, unwanted deployment.
We will not stand by while federal agencies sidestep local authority. Our legal team, working with the Oregon Department of Justice, will use every lawful tool to prevent this overreach. I call on federal decision-makers to stop these deployments, honor local governance, and partner with us on real public-safety solutions that respect civil rights and protect our community.
Joseph Gedeon
One of the longest government shutdowns in US history just got longer after the Senate again failed to pass a funding resolution after a majority of Democrats continued their pressure campaign after the No Kings nationwide weekend protests.
The Senate vote fell for the 11th time with a vote of 50 to 43, with no new defectors from the Democratic side.
Mike Johnson, the House speaker, has for weeks kept the House shuttered on an extended recess, and defended his strategy as necessary to push Senate Democrats into passing the House’s continuing resolution without policy additions. But Democrats have refused to support the measure without provisions addressing healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
Read the full story here:
Portland city council says ‘military intervention is not needed or wanted here’
Portland city council said in a statement “military intervention is not needed or wanted here”, in response to the federal appeals court panel’s 2-1 decision to permit Donald Trump to deploy national guard troops to the city. The local officials also strongly endorsed the dissenting opinion in the case from Susan Graber, a Portland-based federal judge nominated by Bill Clinton.
They added:
This past weekend, close to 50,000 people marched on our streets and made their voices heard peacefully. Allowing the national guard to be deployed when the facts fail to match the Trump administration’s narrative sets a dangerous precedent that threatens every community in our country.
As Judge Graber wrote in her dissent, today’s ruling “erodes core constitutional principles, including sovereign States’ control over their States’ militias and the people’s First Amendment rights to assemble and to object to the government’s policies and actions”.
As your Portland City Council, last week we voted unanimously as a body to strengthen our sanctuary laws and protections. We are united in opposing federal overreach and remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting Portlanders by every means available. From policy to advocacy, we will continue to stand up for democracy, Portlanders’ rights, and our city’s values. We urge everyone to continue raising their voices peacefully and in the spirit of Portland.
Oregon’s governor calls on federal appeals court to stop Trump from deploying troops to Portland
Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, just called on a federal appeals court to review and overturn a decision made by a three-judge panel on Monday that would permit Donald Trump to deploy federalized national guard troops to the streets of Portland against the wishes of state and local officials.
Speaking to reporters at a virtual news conference, Kotek said that she hopes the full ninth circuit court of appeals vacates the panel’s decision 2-1 decision, as the dissenting judge, Portland-based Susan Graber, urged her colleagues to do.
For the moment, Kotek pointed out, a second temporary restraining order issued by a lower court judge, which blocks the deployment of national guard troops from Oregon, California or any other jurisdiction, remains in effect.
“Oregon remains united in the fight against this unwanted, unneeded military intervention in Oregon,” Kotek said. “Over the weekend, people across Oregon gathered peacefully to send a message that the Trump Administration is being dishonest, and these actions to deploy troops are a gross, un-American abuse of power.”
“I’m very troubled by the decision of the court,” Kotek told reporters, pointing out that on Saturday federal officers at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood fired tear gas at people “playfully” dissenting.
“I still urge the Trump Administration to send all the national guard members home,” she said.
In a statement earlier on Monday, Oregon’s attorney general, Dan Rayfield, also called on the full appeals court to follow judge Garber’s dissent and reverse the decision made by the panel.
“Oregon joins Judge Graber in urging the full Ninth Circuit to ‘act swiftly’ en banc ‘to vacate the majority’s order before the illegal deployment of troops under false pretenses can occur’”, Rayfield said. “And, like her, we ‘ask those who are watching this case unfold to retain faith in our judicial system for just a little while longer.’”
The legal battle is complicated by the fact that a district judge in Portland issued two orders temporarily blocking the deployment of national guard troops to the city.
Judge Karin Immergut, who was nominated by Trump during his first term, first blocked the president’s planned deployment of 200 Oregon national guard troops to the city. When Trump responded by attempting to evade the order by sending California national guard troops to Oregon, Immergut issued a second temporary restraining order blocking the deployment of national guard troops from any state or the District of Columbia.
Because the Trump administration asked the appeals court to lift the first restraining order, but not the second, the panel’s decision on Monday still eaves the second order in place, for now.
Interior department discloses plans to fire another 2,050 federal workers
In a court-ordered disclosure filed on Monday, the US interior department revealed that it plans “to abolish 2,050 positions”, including sweeping cuts to the Bureau of Land Management, and smaller numbers at the Fish and Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey and other agencies. Among the positions slated for elimination are Bureau of Reclamation workers who provide maintenance for the Hoover Dam.
The declaration, with a detailed appendix of positions to be cut from Rachel Borra, the interior department’s chief human capital officer, was submitted to comply with an order issued by the US district court for the northern district of California in a lawsuit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and four other national unions that represent federal workers at risk of losing their jobs.
The planned layoffs are paused for now by a temporary restraining order that US District court judge Susan Illston expanded during an emergency hearing on Friday.
As our colleague Anna Betts reports, construction crews started demolishing part of the East Wing of the White House to make way for Donald Trump’s planned ballroom on Monday.
The Washington Post obtained and published a photo of the demolition activity, showing construction in progress and parts of the exterior ripped down.
A Daily Mail reporter shared video of the demolition on social media.
Read the full story here:
Hakeem Jeffries cites Marjorie Taylor Greene on spike in healthcare costs for Americans without extended subsidies
Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the House Democratic minority, just called on Republicans to negotiate an end to the government shutdown by citing Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Maga Republican from Georgia.
“The Republican healthcare crisis, as Marjorie Taylor Greene has repeatedly indicated, is real,” Jeffries told reporters. “And it’s having devastating impacts that are becoming increasingly apparent to the American people. In Idaho, 100,000 Americans are at risk of losing their health care if the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire, because it will become unaffordable for them.”
He went on to cite examples in other states where some people are “finding out that their health insurance premiums are about to increase by more than $2,000 per month”.
Lauren Gambino
A growing share of Americans believe religion is gaining influence and society – and view its expanding role positively, a new report by the Pew research center has found. It comes as the Trump administration has sought to fuse conservative Christian values and governance, especially in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
In just one year, the share of US adults who believe religion is gaining influence in American society has increased sharply. While still a minority view, 31% say religion is on the rise – up from just 18% a year earlier, in February 2024 – the highest figure recorded in 15 years.
Meanwhile, the percentage who say religion is losing influence dropped from 80% to 68%.
According to the Pew survey, these changing perceptions of religion suggest a broader shift in a country that was rapidly secularizing. Nearly six in 10 Americans (59%) now express a positive view of religion’s influence in public life, either because they see its rising power as a good thing, or view its decline as a bad thing. Only 20% express negative views, while the rest remain neutral or uncertain.
Notably, the shift is not confined to one party or demographic. Both Republicans and Democrats, as well as nearly all major religious groups and age brackets, have become more likely to say religion is gaining ground – and more likely to feel their religious beliefs conflict with mainstream American culture. That sense of cultural conflict is now a majority view, with 58% of US adults reporting at least some tension between their beliefs and broader society.
Finally, while views on religious truth vary, nearly half of Americans (48%) say many religions may be true – more than double the share (26%) who say only one religion is true.
Pew’s findings suggest a significant cultural shift unfolding under an administration that has explicitly championed Christian conservatism as a governing ethos.
Portland-based appeals court judge issues scathing dissent to ruling clearing the way for Trump to deploy troops to Portland
It is perhaps significant that Susan Graber, the lone dissenting voice on the three-judge federal appeals court panel that just permitted Donald Trump to deploy federal troops to Portland, Oregon, in the only one of the three to be based in Portland.
Graber, a former law school classmate of Bill and Hillary Clinton who was nominated to the federal bench by Clinton while serving on the Oregon supreme court, wrote a scathing dissent to the majority ruling, which lifts a lower-court order that had temporarily blocked Trump from sending in troops to what he falsely claims is a “war-ravaged” city.
The other two judges on the panel, both nominated by Trump during his first term, are based in Arizona and Idaho.
Graber said in an interview in 2012, that “it was kind of love at first sight with Portland” for her when she first moved to the city to work as a law clerk.
In her dissent, she urged the full appeals court to reverse the decision by the panel, writing that there was “no legal or factual justification supported the order to federalize and deploy the Oregon National Guard”.
She continued: “Given Portland protesters’ well-known penchant for wearing chicken suits, inflatable frog costumes, or nothing at all when expressing their disagreement with the methods employed by ICE, observers may be tempted to view the majority’s ruling, which accepts the government’s characterization of Portland as a war zone, as merely absurd. But today’s decision is not merely absurd. It erodes core constitutional principles, including sovereign States’ control over their States’ militias and the people’s First Amendment rights to assemble and to object to the government’s policies and actions.”
The judge added: “The majority’s order abdicates our judicial responsibility, permitting the President to invoke emergency authority in a situation far divorced from an enumerated emergency.”
Graber concluded:
“We have come to expect a dose of political theater in the political branches, drama designed to rally the base or to rile or intimidate political opponents. We also may expect there a measure of bending – sometimes breaking – the truth. By design of the Founders, the judicial branch stands apart. We rule on facts, not on supposition or conjecture, and certainly not on fabrication or propaganda. I urge my colleagues on this court to act swiftly to vacate the majority’s order before the illegal deployment of troops under false pretenses can occur. Above all, I ask those who are watching this case unfold to retain faith in our judicial system for just a little longer.”
Oregon attorney general says America is ‘on a dangerous path’ following appeals court ruling
The Oregon attorney general, Dan Rayfield, has issued a statement following the ruling from the ninth circuit court of appeals, which lifted the temporary restraining order blocking the deployment of the state’s national guard.
He said that if the ruling is allowed to stand, it would give Donald Trump “unilateral power to put Oregon soldiers on our streets with almost no justification”.
“We are on a dangerous path in America,” he added.
The three-judge panel was split in their decision, with Clinton-appointee Susan Graber dissenting from her colleagues. Rayfield added:
Oregon joins Judge Graber in urging the full Ninth Circuit to ‘act swiftly’ en banc ‘to vacate the majority’s order before the illegal deployment of troops under false pretenses can occur.’ And, like her, we ‘ask those who are watching this case unfold to retain faith in our judicial system for just a little while longer’.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
-
A three-judge panel on the ninth circuit court of appeals has ruled that the Trump administration can deploy the national guard to Portland, Oregon. They lifted a lower court judge’s decision that blocked the president from federalizing and sending roughly 200 troops to the city to guard federal buildings, as largely small and peaceful protests took place in recent weeks outside an immigration facility in the city.
-
Donald Trump welcomed Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese to the White House, signing a rare earth minerals deal as trade tensions with China escalate. The pair just signed a rare earths agreement which opens up Australia’s vast mineral resources. Albanese added that the deal was an “eight and a half billion dollar pipeline” to supply critical rare earths to the US. Meanwhile, Trump doubled down on his threat of imposing a 157% tariff on Chinese imports if both nations can’t reach a trade deal. This, after Beijing announced they were tightening exports of rare earth minerals. “We have a tremendous power, and that’s the power of tariff, and I think that China will come to the table and make a very fair deal,” the president added.
-
Donald Trump said he didn’t think Ukraine would win back land that was captured by Russia during the war. “They could still win it,” Trump remarked during his meeting with Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese. “I don’t think they will. They could still win it. I never said they would win it. Anything can happen. You know, war is a very strange thing.” Trump’s seeming skepticism of a Ukrainian victory came several days after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which he appeared more keen on negotiating a peace agreement than supplying the nation with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
-
The president has said that Hamas is “going to behave” or will face severe repercussions. While taking questions from reporters today, Trump said that Hamas are “going to be nice, and if they’re not, we’re going to go and we’re going to eradicate them”. This comes after Israel launched waves of deadly airstrikes on Sunday and cut off all aid into Gaza “until further notice” after a reported attack by Hamas, in escalations that marked the most serious threat so far to the fragile ceasefire in the devastated territory.
-
The government shutdown entered its 20th day, with little end in sight. The House remains out of session, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blame the other party for the impasse on Capitol Hill. Earlier, White House economic adviser said that shutdown would “likely” end this week after the No Kings protests took place across the country. The Senate will vote, for the 11th time, on a House-passed funding bill to reopen the government at 5:30pm ET.
